Type 1 & Type 2: New ‘Zero-Calorie’ Sweetener Available

Shugr is a new zero-calorie sweetener manufactured by Swiss Research, Inc., of Los Angeles, California, available nationwideat The Vitamin Shoppe.

Shugr is made from sugars that occur naturally in fruits, vegetables, corn and dairy products.

“Until now, there has been no naturalalternative to zero-calorie sweeteners,”says Loren Miles, CEO of Swiss Research,Inc. “Some with no calories don’t taste likesugar. Others don’t cook and bake well,so there is a separate cooking and bakingversion that is actually half cane sugar,adding back the caloric and glycemic loads.”

Miles adds that Shugr tastes, cooks andbakes like cane sugar.

“It rises, browns and caramelizes likecane sugar. It also requires no specialmeasurements—a teaspoon of Shugrequals a teaspoon of sugar.”

Shugr does not contain any cane sugar,acesulfame-K, saccharin, high fructose cornsyrup, neotame, fructose, honey or stevia.

For more information, visit www.shugr.com.

To find The Vitamin Shoppe location nearestyou, see www.vitaminshoppe.com.

A Note From Gerri French, MS/RD, CDE

Shugr is made of four ingredients: erythritol,maltodextrin, tagatose and sucralose (Splenda).Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that contains only0.2 calories per gram, which can be defined as“zero calories.” It is different than other currentsugar alcohols that are called reduced-caloriesweeteners and typically have 2 to 3 caloriesper gram. Sugar by comparison has 4 calories pergram.

Tagatose also is a reduced-calorie sweetenerthat is metabolized differently than sugar andis incompletely absorbed. According towww.caloriecontrol.org, it contains an energyvalue of only 1.5 calories per gram. On a foodlabel, the “zero calorie” claim can be usedwhen using less than 3.33 grams per servingof tagatose.

Maltodextrin is a unique sugar with a lowglycemic index but it does provide 4 caloriesper gram. It is used in many items in such smallamounts that it does not impact the calorie valueof the food.

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